Editor’s Letter: The Setup

From January 2023 issue car and driver.

I have been accused of changing the world to suit me. A fair assessment of the evidence: disabling the Glade plug-in, stinking the building’s mailroom, traveling with tools to remove flow restrictors from hotel showers, and his TV-B-Gone at Christmas and adjusted the steering column and display on my beloved Ford. Run away every time you drive. I’m not alone In fact, automakers are tapping into the innate human desire to customize things.

A typical ’23 model has a dizzying number of settings. My basic pre-flight checklist goes something like this: pair the phone and hope for wireless CarPlay, or add “a frayed USB cord stuck in a slot from the back of my backpack” to the list. . Locate the Chassis and Primary Control setup. Softens the damper (adaptive dampers do just that and adapt). Lighten the steering as long as the weight doesn’t feel unnatural. We want a sensitive throttle, so the normal mode of the transmission is a good starting point. Then safety settings. Goodbye blind spot monitoring. My mirror is adjusted to see my blind spots. The lane departure warning is for carelessness and the collision warning is set to go off as late as possible. I want to unlock all doors when I touch the door handle or unlock button. The easy entry seat that slides back turns off when the car is turned off. Followed by a dipping right exterior mirror. Automatic headlights turn off as soon as the car is turned off. The parking warning sound is muted, the simulated engine sound is stopped, the exhaust is in normal mode, and the air conditioner is in auto mode. Illuminated doors and floors make the interior look like a failed European disco. wait. Why is there so much bass in this song by Taylor Swift? Search the audio controls.

During 10Best Week, CDs The staff toured 40 cars in 5 days and had the opportunity to test almost every setting menu and interface. Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, and General Motors work best, making possibilities easier to spot and decipher. Korean brands and Mazda explain what the selection does. This will help determine how the Bose Centerpoint will affect the CX-50, which has a less intuitive interface on BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. His former editor-in-chief, Csaba Csere, searched endlessly for ways to darken his Hyperscreen, which is giant in a Mercedes-Benz EQE. Before you ask, he read the manual and eventually discovered that the controls were buried deep in menus, not the ones labeled Light. He met the designers behind the hyper screen and asked what else they had worked on. A non-cook in the kitchen.

My philosophy is to leave it to the specialists. A car’s ride and handling should be set by the engineer, not the owner. Display and controls need to be designed by automotive professionals who understand that phones and cars have different requirements. A little tweaking is welcome, but too much leads to what psychologist Barry Schwartz called the “paradox of choice.” Too many choices hinder decision-making and cause stress. Throw in a confusing interface and well, I’m never leaving this parking lot.